Here is the Agenda for the next meeting of Nairn River Community Council to be held in Nairn Community and Arts Centre at 7 pm on Wednesday 16th May
Agenda NRCC 17 May 2018
You may also be interested in reading the draft minutes of our last meeting
NRCC Draft Minutes 18 April 2018
We have been busy since April – see our next posting to see what we\’ve been up to…
You can find it here
Local consultation and community empowerment
Latest Planning comments – new retail developments at Sainsbury site, and further housing at Lochloy/Kingsteps and Forres Road
Nairn River Community Council has recently posted three planning comments in relation to current local planning applications. We have noted a number of longstanding concerns around the pressing need for investment in infrastructure ( roads, drainage, sewerage) , and increased traffic congestion in East Nairn ( A96/Lochloy Road, Merryton junction bottleneck) .
We have also noted the pressing need for local school and other community provision at Lochloy estate to keep pace with further housing proposed in this area, as Auldearn Primary is now at full capacity, and Millbank will be if all housing proposed is built. This need only came to our attention in early 2018 after a visit from a Highland Council Care and Learning official to our February meeting to discuss possible changes in school catchment areas across Nairnshire to accommodate the rapid growth in population at Lochloy.
As all 3 pending applications below will impact on traffic and add pressure on other infrastructure in Nairn ( drains, sewerage, schools) we are asking Highland Council Planning committee to consider all three proposals as interlinked. No dates have yet been finalised for these applications to go to SPAC(Planning Committee) and Transport Scotland has asked for more time to review impacts on traffic
Planning comments can be found here with applications on the Highland Council Planning Portal
1/ new development at Sainsbury Site ( McDonalds restaurant and Home Bargains)
2/ pending application for housing Springfield) at Kingsteps/Lochloy (Cllr MacDonald’s land)
3/pending application for housing ( Deveron Homes) at Forres Road (former Morganti house site)
Access to Banking Services in the Highlands – HIE surveys for public and businesses
Find below links to a number of surveys launched by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to find out about access to banking services in the Highlands for citizens, businesses and community groups. Nairn River Community Council would urge citizens, businesses and community groups to complete these – particularly in light of Nairn losing our RBS bank branch from June 2018.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise have told us that these Surveys can be made available by hard copy, and welcome communities’ help in distributing these. The email address to obtain hard copies is hello@indigohousegroup.com.
You can read more about the study on Highlands and Islands Enterprise website below.
Please see the survey links below.
Business survey –
Residents survey –
Community groups survey –
Community Responses to 2 Nairn Planning Applications
Nairn River Community Council has in January 2018 submitted detailed objections ( in our role as a statutory consultee) to two planning applications for significant new housing developments in East Nairn
You can read our submissions and others on the Highland Council Planning website
Kingsteps application (115 homes) and Forres Rd/A96 Morganti site( 32 homes)*
Our main concerns are that local roads, water and sewerage systems in the town are at bursting point.
Quite literally recently, as could be seen and smelt on Harbour Street when drains overflowed with sewage from our outdated ‘combined’ drainage system after heavy rain on 24th January…
We believe that no more large scale housing can safely be developed in the town, without endangering the health of residents, and our tourist industry, until :
traffic congestion and drainage infrastructure problems are properly addressed and invested in
our natural assets of beaches, green spaces and wildlife are properly valued and protected
local social housing need takes priority over the profit making ambitions of commercial developers.
NRCC letter to Nairnshire re pressure on local infrastructure of new housing developments
Letter from NRCC to Nairnshire Telegraph published Tuesday 31 November 2017
On behalf of Nairn River Community Council, we are very concerned about the misleading way that discussions at our meeting last Wednesday 15 November were reported on the front page of last week’s Nairnshire ( Tues 22 November 2017).
We wish to clarify our consistent support as a body for provision of appropriate housing in Nairn to meet local need. At no point have we ever as an organisation taken a position against provision of social housing for Nairn. We are thus disappointed to see this suggested on your front page.
At last week’s meeting when Cller MacDonald noted the availability of Scottish Government funding for affordable housing, suggesting we were not in favour of this for Nairn, several Community Councillors spoke up to refute that. Our objection to the proposed Forres Road site development (see www.nairnrivercc.org) made clear that what was proposed was not good enough for social housing tenants. We want to see high quality housing design and amenities, and a healthy living environment in line with Scottish Government’s recent Creating Places policy paper which is meant to inform local affordable housing plans.
Our main objections to the Forres Road site plan were
the additional pressure it would add to water, sewerage and traffic infrastructure in the area
multiple health and safety hazards for a site bounded by a railway, radio mast and busy major road,
loss of a key ‘green space’ in the town, contravening aspects of Local Development Plan.
Tree roots and wildlife habitats including badger setts have already been destroyed by \’test drilling\’ on site without any planning consent yet approved.
With regard to infrastructure overload, we have seen more than 600 new houses built in the Lochloy area in a decade. This has put unsustainable pressure on our ancient sewage pipe network. Despite expanding capacity at our sewage works, pipework is in places, broken, overloaded or otherwise unfit for purpose. Raw sewage mixes with surface water and overflows in rainy weather releasing sewage into our streets and waterways. This is a serious public health risk and bad for tourism, with Nairn’s famous beaches now struggling to pass clean water quality standards.
Building more housing without first sorting supporting infrastructure, will simply add to the pressure, with bigger problems ahead as the climate gets wetter.
Community Councils and other groups have for years been asking Councillors and public agencies to prioritise investment in upgrading supporting infrastructure (water, sewerage and traffic management) before any more large scale housing development gets the green light in Nairn.
Of course we all want Nairn\’s social housing shortfall to be addressed but it is worthy of note that only a handful of the 600 plus new houses built at Lochloy are classed as \’affordable\’, and even fewer are \’social housing\’ for rent.
If Highland Council and our Councillors on the Planning Committee had been effective in their job of implementing the 25% quota of affordable housing recommended by Scottish Government at Lochloy, we could have had up to 150 additional social housing units by now. So where are they? Something has gone badly wrong and has to change. It is part of a Community Council’s job to keep standing up for Nairn’s interests, when our Council or other authorities fall short.
This is why the way in which Liz MacDonald\’s ‘statement\’ was presented in last week’s Nairnshire was particularly misleading and divisive.
We do not expect a Councillor to promote large scale housebuilding, without also acknowledging the urgent need for investment in underpinning infrastructure in our town. This is particularly inappropriate from a Councillor with a publicly acknowledged conflict of interest due to her personal involvement in another pending local housing development at Lochloy.
Community Councils play an important role in new local planning structures, as local forums to help citizens and communities to raise local issues and inform priorities for public spending. We are keen to work effectively with our 4 elected Highland Councillors to ensure that there is a strong voice in Inverness speaking up for Nairn interests.
We continue to welcome the public including our Councillors to all our meetings. Not everyone shares the same views but we are all on Nairn\’s side, with our members giving their time freely to get the best for our town.
We currently have two vacant seats on Nairn River Community Council – if you want to put your name forward there has never been a better time than now….Please contact us via www.nairnrivercc.org
Yours sincerely
Tommy Hogg
Chairman
Nairn River Community Council
25 Nov 2017
Nairn River Community Council 